US Airways is the dominant carrier at Charlotte Douglas, with about 90 percent of the airport s more

Southwest Airlines said Monday that it will start flights from Charlotte next year, replacing AirTran, but an aviation expert greece travel planning said the small number of flights offered likely won t have a serious impact on fares at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
Southwest Airlines is known throughout the country for its unique product and customer service delivery. I am sure this will please a number of our passengers who have been requesting this for some time, said Jerry Orr, Charlotte Douglas International Airport s aviation greece travel planning director.
Aviation analyst Fred Lowrance, with Avondale Partners, said Southwest has made an impact on major carriers in other AirTran markets it s taken over, by offering steep sales to lure new customers. Lowrance said it hurt Delta Air Lines in Atlanta, which was formerly AirTran s main hub.
You might have a month of disruption. They ll do it just to say, Yeah, we re here, said Lowrance. Once that wears off, they re going to have to get down to the business of covering their cost of flying those routes.
US Airways is the dominant carrier at Charlotte Douglas, with about 90 percent of the airport s more than 700 daily flights. With so many flights from Charlotte Douglas, customers aren t likely to see a large effect from the six Southwest flights that replace what was already a low-cost carrier.
Federal data shows Charlotte has the 18th-highest average fare among the nation s top 100 airports. The average domestic fare from Charlotte was $428 in the first quarter of 2012, up 9.3 percent from the same quarter last year.
Last week, Southwest reported that it swung back to a third-quarter profit of $16 million, up from a $140 million loss during the same period a year ago. Revenue remained flat and ticket prices actually sank slightly, however.
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